‘We Buy Gold_#CFB53B’ is a multimedia, space and light installation that takes place in the space of one private house in Korčula town. The house is currently being used within the framework of the artistic residency program led by the grey) (area.

Access to the installation is possible from Thursday, June 11 at 11 o’clock and will be open daily from 11 to 14 o’clock. That is the period of the day when the strongest daily sun emission allows for golden glow. The exhibition, with the presence of the artist, will be open until June 21 (the beginning of the summer solstice), after which the protocolar part of the exhibition ceases, and visitors and new residential artists of the grey) (area will be able to use the installation space without restrictions.

Branka Cvjetičanin works with art protocols. As a part of this art work a specific protocol has been developed. This protocol comprises artistic concept, color, time, performance and instructions on code of conduct.

What has been applied in this work is a technique of gilding. However, instead of applying thin sheets of real gold on the surface of the object, here the leaves are being substituted by gold colored vinyl film applied on all the interior walls and floors of the gallery space. In this way, instead exterior of the building – the interior (and internal) space of the house has been transformed.

By the summer solstice* the author will be personally guiding visitors, by taking them one by one throughout the installation space, while simultaneously establishing specific behavioral and movement protocols. Part of the protocol is collecting alms. Space of the gilded room will be available to look at from a certain position, marked on the floor with the designation as e.g. ‘here is the best spot for taking pictures’. These kinds of designation marks can be seen in many tourist towns, but, fortunately, so far not in Korcula.

Code # CFB53B is international color code information, known as the ‘old gold’ (Old Gold), simulation, display, (non) color of gold as presented in CMYK or RGB monitor color displays for color printing systems. The installation ‘We Buy Gold_#CFB53B’ uses the gold foil, hence the ‘real’ metal (non) color, and not its simulation in other media. However, the here used gold foil is not made of precious gold ore, as it is customary in the art of gilding. What the author tackles here is the art of protocols, transformation and simulation.

Gold purchase is a painful reminder of the times of economic crisis in which, after the last reserves of cash have been depleted, gold is being monetarised. On the other hand, gold-plated objects are mainly related to religious objects and liturgy (multimedia choreography of worship). The draft version of the title of the work was ‘Rooms for prayer … or how to read a helpless economy’, while the work on display now is a part of a series of works in which the artist questions the connection between emotional and economic trends in contemporary society. Similar to participatory art happenings of the 1950s and 1960s, the protocol part of the work is being traced by the author, while the second part is being left to improvisation, coincidence, and external factors such as church holidays, or attitudes of local people and tourists to the institution of the church or weather forecasts.

During July and August the gallery hosts works of seven artists from New Zealand and Australia in a three-storey house. Cvjetičanin is leaving to other artists who will participate in this year’s program the possibility and freedom to place their works in a gold room on the second floor.

Since ​​its inception the grey) (area has positioned its activity in the interstitial spaces, what in the professional jargon has been called ”between the ‘white cube’ and ‘black box”’, that is, between the so-called neutral white cube gallery space and the black box, which traditionally is the area of ​​performing arts.

From the artist’ statement:

In the works that are in some way “site-specific” (like this one is) there are some spatial determinations, those following the first space the given of this paper is the position of the house in the medieval town of Korcula, which in the context of Croatian tourism Yearbooks means that in consideration of the urban and historical space establishes a simple math that respects the laws of large numbers placed in a two-month tourist season. This pattern is visible in the microcosm of the city which during the summer months from srednjevjekovja expands into marine park zone and intense traffic junction. In the middle of the summer legality, everything outside tertiary service activities is almost unnoticeable excess or absorbed as part offering strategy. Also, there is an inevitable aspect of the economic crisis task and thoughts on the political economy in which they are used prvoloptaška solutions and due to be carried out without buying gold to really examine this phenomenon.

Another space given fact refers to the fact that the installation of a temporary nature and is located in a space that is itself in transition and that the memory of the citizens there is a space associated with the personal story of Korcula’s family, new users of space and space gradually deprive heritage and establish a new narrative . That moment of suspension in which there is still a space that has not lost the old patina and space that has not yet become a gallery, install installation which determines the circumstances catalyzing them in a way that gilding (gold foil) fully encapsulates one of the rooms in the house. Economy of space is interpreted in equity distributions objects throughout history to made bigger or fragmented so that the interior of the house I actually took a vertical series of narrow stairways and narrow room for maneuver and the bell tower like distorted room without a single right angle, to adopt and emphasize the protocol of movement within the installation and use it as the basis of the protocol movement.

And the third is the given of the spatial relationship between the inner and outer space, which means the connection of natural elements, climate and weather conditions, as well as a period of days and ways of following up and measuring the time that the memory space built into the architectonics of the building and lifestyle. In this context, I use daylight as a natural phenomenon of the movement of time in space, perception and regulation in the same house that becomes our inner clock.

All these elements have been used as a base and part of the decision making process in establishing installation and protocol elements that provoke existing narratives, referring to his previous work in which I talk about commitment, transcendence and areas inhabited by art, and that his background in favor of the idea impotent economy.

But light installation and does not need to be not only to read, because the experience of space optočenog gold is very rare, and each of the visitors will be allowed to enter the premises and installations question the impact of golden reflections through personal perception.

* June 21, 2014. at 10:51 pm

** In the RGB color system used mainly on the monitors it is 81.2% red, 71% green and 23.1% blue, while in the CMYK color design trails, which are used mainly in four color print is 0% cyan, magenta, 12.6%, 71.5 % yellow and 18.8% black.